Jurrasic Camp d'Evegnee 2015

For phase one of Camp d'Evegnee this year, we decided to have a mini-session at the end of June to tide us over until Eric and I finished school at the end of July. The theme really chose us because of one of the summer blockbusters. To say that we were a little excited to see Jurassic World would be like saying Doctor Allen Grant is just a little handsome.

When our three oldest were just wee little ones, we had more dinosaurs than articles of clothing in our house. There were times when our trio believed that they had been hatched rather than born.

We watched cartoons, movies, and documentaries about dinosaurs until our video tapes were wearing thin. The boys knew more about Dr. Sue Hendrickson the Paleontologist than they did about Bob the Builder. They could pronounce words like "diplodocus" and "ankylosaurus" through their baby teeth before they could recite their ABC's.

We winced with just a tad of guilt when we showed them Jurassic Park on video tape when Holden was three because we were worried it might scare them. As the credits rolled and John Williams' score soared, our guilt was completed abated. The only time they had been scared was when the T-Rex seemed to be in danger. "Mom?" they asked with fear in their eyes, "Did the dinosaurs get hurt?"

We quickly realized that rather than identifying with the humans, our tribe identified with and sympathized with the dinosaurs. Jurassic Park soon became a regular in our family movie night rotation.

We even dressed up as Jurassic Park one year for Halloween:

This summer, we couldn't resist watching one Jurassic Park movie each day on the days leading up to our outing to take all seven kids to see Jurassic World. There. I admitted it. We took every single one of our kids to see Jurassic World. And we took them to see the. . . late. . . show. (I will look away while you judge me.). 

Each day we watched one of the Jurassic Park movies and prepared a Jurassic Park-themed meal. The kids helped me brainstorm about what we would make for each dinner and you would think they had been raised just to come up with party food. 

This one was easily my favorite in the world-play menu. When Caleb came up with this one, I thought my professorial heart would burst.

This is an actual photo of the ribs we ate for dinner, and as I was taking the photo, the kids said, "Mom! Wouldn't it be cool if you could photoshop the ribs so they looked like they were being lowered into the raptor's pen at feeding time?" How could I resist?

When we went to Utah for our family reunion only days later, I took Charlie to Build-a-Bear while all of the other kids were at Grandma and Grandpa Camp. I think he might be just a little thrilled out of his mind about this T-Rex. It was the whipped cream on the jell-o of our Jurassic Park Week.